Gracious Lies: Stories by Hilda Lolly

Gracious Lies, is a collection of five delightfully unsettling short stories that take a lingering peep behind the net curtains of everyday life, love and marriage. In Hand, Foot & Finger, imperious Leonard and his pale wife Audrey head once again to Aunty Lynne’s West Country guesthouse. Can Audrey endure another week of toil on the beautiful beaches of Weston-super-Mare? The New Mrs Barefoot is en route, but for faithful family retainer, Dobbo, life may never be the same as he discovers his employer’s new wife is not quite the heavenly creature he was expecting. In Lemon, knife-sharp tensions erupt between Claire and husband Trevor, when his reminiscences and red wine consumption look set to ruin a dinner party designed to impress her new boss.While in Upper Rugless, a life of bucolic tranquillity and Victoria sponge is simply not as delightful as it promised to be – as high-spirited Jemima is about to find out. And in Sixty-Six Steps to Mother Gerald and Angela ascend for Christmas lunch. Will it be a case of like mother, like son? And will it be a step too far for the impeccably attired Angela? Peel back the nets and enter, if you dare, the darkly delicious world of Gracious Lies…